Michael Schumacher made Grand Prix racing history in 2000 by becoming the first man in 21 years to win the drivers’ world championship at the wheel of one of Italy’s scarlet Ferraris. For the 31-year-old German ace, this was his third and hardest-won title crown, the culmination of five years of dogged and persistent struggle since he joined the most famous team in the Formula One (F1) business in 1996. On his way to the championship, Schumacher won 9 of the season’s 17 races, more than double the total of his key rival, Mika Hakkinen—champion in 1998 and 1999—who managed just four wins for the McLaren-Mercedes team. The remaining races also fell to those two leading teams, with British driver David Coulthard winning three for McLaren and Brazil’s Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher’s new teammate from the start of the 2000 season, scoring his maiden F1 success with a victory in the German Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s convincing return to the F1 front line—and its second consecutive constructor’s championship—was a vindication for the entire team, headed by French sporting director Jean Todt, who first joined the team in 1993 and who shaped, planned, and cajoled the whole operation, progressively reinventing Ferrari as an F1 force over a grueling seven-year period. While Ferrari’s top engineers Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne built a formidable technical armoury, however, it was unlikely they could have done it without Schumacher, who showed himself uniquely capable of turning situations to his advantage.

Ultimately the McLaren team was thwarted in its efforts to carry Hakkinen to his third straight drivers’ championship. Despite this, Hakkinen emerged stronger than ever before as the one man Schumacher clearly respected and knew would definitely give as good as he got. Coulthard did well enough, but somehow he never quite emerged as the potential title threat anticipated in the middle of the year.

Among the also-rans, there was much gloom and precious little promise. The most impressive member of the supporting cast was the BMW Williams team, which showed both a promising new Munich, Ger.-built V10 engine and a dramatic young British talent in the form of Jenson Button. In his first F1 season, Button demonstrated huge talent and assurance for a 20-year-old novice. British American Racing also emerged as a credible F1 operation; a new partnership with Honda helped 1997 champion driver Jacques Villeneuve and the Brackley, Eng.-based team to go up a gear. In doing so they successfully buried dire memories of their awful 1999 season with Supertec power.

There were three key disappointments on the F1 scene, each failing to make a mark for very different reasons. The Jordan team, which should have been challenging Williams, had a level of mechanical unreliability that was desperate. Jaguar struggled to make sense of the F1 business with a deficient car, initially unreliable engines, and a management structure caught trying to learn the intricacies of the Grand Prix game while at the same time fighting fires on every business front. Prost was engaged in political battles with its unsympathetic engine partner, Peugeot, which was intent on quitting at the end of the year.

In many ways the biggest single development in 2000 was the return of F1 racing to the U.S. for the first time in nine years. This time, however, the race did not take place between concrete barriers lining the streets of Phoenix, Ariz. (the last American venue to hold an F1 race), but rather occurred on a spectacularly adapted road circuit incorporating a banked corner of the famous Indianapolis (Ind.) Motor Speedway. The inaugural race was a huge success, thanks in part to F1 power broker Bernie Ecclestone’s deal with Speedway president Tony George, which was expected to ensure F1’s continued presence in Indiana on an open-ended basis. It was uncertain how long it would take to educate American spectators, accustomed to all-action sports with plenty of scoring, to appreciate the strategic “chessboard” philosophy behind contemporary F1 pit-stop racing. Ironically, there was concern that F1’s reappearance in the U.S. might leave the Championship Auto Racing Teams single-seater series, which offered consistently great racing and a diversity of venues ranging from street circuit to superspeedway to regular road track, at something of a commercial disadvantage.

In 2000 the Indianapolis Motor Speedway complex, site of three major races sanctioned by disparate series, could lay claim to being the epicentre of U.S. automobile racing. With the inaugural race on its purpose-built Formula One (F1) road course, the venue hosted the U.S. Grand Prix, the Indy Racing League (IRL) Indianapolis 500, and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Brickyard 400.

The Indy 500, held on May 28, was won by Juan Montoya of Colombia for the Target/Chip Ganassi team, which competed mainly in the rival Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) single-seater series. Montoya edged the IRL’s Buddy Lazier by 7.184 sec at an average speed of 167.607 mph. Montoya and third-place finisher Eliseo Salazar of Chile drove Oldsmobile-powered G-Force chassis, while Lazier drove an Olds-powered Dallara. The top qualifying speed of 223.471 mph was set by defending IRL points champion Greg Ray. Montoya, who planned to defect to F1 racing in 2001, led for 167 of the race’s 200 laps. Competitors claimed that Montoya’s pit stops were as much as four seconds faster than their own.

In August Bobby Labonte, in a Joe Gibbs Pontiac, won the Brickyard 400, part of the 34-race NASCAR Winston Cup series. Labonte, averaging 155.912 mph, bested Ford’s Rusty Wallace by 4.23 sec. Bill Elliott, also in a Ford, finished third. The U.S. Grand Prix in September was the final jewel in Indy Speedway owner Tony George’s crown. Michael Schumacher of Germany, driving a Ferrari, won on the new 2.606-mi course, which incorporated part of the famed banked 2.5-mi Indy oval. Each of the three races drew more than 200,000 spectators.

CART, which left a gap in its schedule so its members could attempt the Indianapolis 500, offered $13,632,500 in purse money over its 20-race FedEx series, which traveled to four countries outside the U.S. As in 1999, the championship came down to the Marlboro 500 final in California. In a weather-hampered contest, Gil de Ferran, driving a Honda-powered Reynard, won the series points championship by finishing third behind his main challenger, fellow Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi, in a Ford Lola.

Lazier won the IRL’s Northern Light season championship for Indy single seaters by finishing fourth in the season finale at Texas Motor Speedway. That was all he needed to do to vanquish Canada’s Scott Goodyear, who won in an Oldsmobile-powered Dallara. Infiniti’s Eddie Cheever, Jr., was third on the season and second in the race, which was the fastest in series history (175.276-mph average over 500 mi).

In the Winston Cup series, 1999 champion Dale Jarrett won the February classic, the Daytona (Fla.) 500, starting from the pole position in a Robert Yates Ford Taurus. The car, which had virtually been rebuilt overnight after a crash in practice the day before, led four other Fords over the finish line as the race ended under caution. Jeff Burton was second and Elliott third. Jarrett, who won $1,277,975 plus an additional $1,000,000 bonus for the Daytona victory—a NASCAR record payout—averaged 155.669 mph. He earned more than $5,226,000 but finished fourth in the 2000 point standings. Labonte won the season championship and more than $4,000,000, including $831,225 for winning the Brickyard 400. Labonte led a Pontiac resurgence that edged Chevrolet for second place behind Ford for the manufacturer’s title. Seven-time Winston Cup points champion Dale Earnhardt finished second on the season. The top 38 Winston Cup drivers earned at least $1,000,000 on the season.

The NASCAR circuit suffered a double blow early in the year. Lee Petty—three-time champion driver and founder of a four-generation dynasty of stock-car drivers that included his son Richard, grandson Kyle, and great-grandson Adam Petty—died in April at age 86. (See Obituaries.) Less than six weeks later, 19-year-old Adam Petty, who had made his professional racing debut in 1998, was killed in a crash during a practice run in New Hampshire.

Rallies and Other Races

In the world rally championship circuit, Tommi Mäkinen (Mitsubishi) of Finland won his second consecutive Rally of Monte Carlo in January 2000, but he failed to win another race all season and was unable to capture his fifth straight overall world rally title. In Australia in November, after Mäkinen had crossed the finish first, it was discovered that his car’s turbocharger did not comply with regulations of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. The noncompliance was ruled a mistake, but Mäkinen was disqualified in favour of another Finn, Marcus Grönholm (Peugeot). It was Grönholm’s fourth win of the season. British driver Richard Burns (Subaru), who was second overall to Mäkinen in 1999, also had four wins in 2000. His victory in the season-ending Rally of Great Britain, however, was not enough to hold off Grönholm, who won his first overall title by only five points, 65–60. Peugeot (111 points) won the manufacturer’s title over Ford (91) and Subaru (88).

In June Audi dominated the Le Mans 24-Hour Grand Prix d’Endurance in France, finishing 1–2–3. The winning Audi R8, driven by Frank Biela of Germany, Tom Kristensen of Denmark, and Emmanuele Pirro of Italy, completed 368 laps, or 5,007.988 km (3,111.82 mi). The second-place Audi team of Scotland’s Allan McNish and his French co-drivers, Stephane Ortelli and Laurent Aiello, finished one lap back. McNish, Ortelli, and Aiello had won the 1998 race for Porsche.

The two American road racing classics were sanctioned by rival groups. The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, put on by the Grand American Road Racing Association, recorded the closest finish in the race’s 38-year history as production-based Grand Touring vehicles dominated. A Team Oreca Dodge Viper GTSR driven by Olivier Beretta and Dominique Dupuy of France and Karl Wendlinger of Austria bested a Chevrolet Corvette by 30.879 sec. After a 50-year hiatus, Cadillac reentered racing, finishing cars in 13th and 14th place.

In the 48th annual Superflo 12 Hours of Sebring (Fla.), the jewel of the 12-race American Le Mans endurance series, the Audi R8 team finished 1–2 overall—39.11 sec apart—with the winner averaging 110.692 mph. A lap behind was a BMW V12.